ECOVIR: Study of a primary care cohort in of patients with Acute Respiratory Infections in Normandy, an example of pluri-professional hospital-primary care coordination

Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) need be better understood and more effectively treated, especially insofar as they are of pivotal importance in public health, particularly during a crisis such as the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. The prospective, multicentric cohort study of viral codetections in respiratory samples study known as ECOVIR was conducted in Normandy, France during two winters (2018-2019, 2019-2020). The objective of the project was to create a biobank of respiratory tract samples from patients consulting their general practitioner (GP) for ARI symptoms. ECOVIR involved 36 GP investigators (GPI), from 8 health care centers throughout Normandy. Six hundred and eighty-five patients with ARI symptoms were included; naso-pharyngeal samples were taken by the GPIs and subsequently analyzed in virology laboratories for the purposes of viral codetection. The median of inclusions was 16 patients for each of the 31 actively participating GPIs over the two winters (CI25-75% [4.75; 27]). By D7, 92% of the patients contacted had responded to our call for participation, enabling us to obtain clinical, environmental and socio-demographic data. Through this study, we created an original functional network, thereby establishing a viable link between research and primary care, which is generally underrepresented in research protocols, even though it constitutes the cornerstone of the French health care system, especially during this prolonged period of sanitary crisis. (C) 2022 SPLF. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.